Every electric utility owns the overhead and underground service conductors feeding the home owner’s meter. Often, the homeowner will experience problems such as extra bright or flickering lights indicating there is an electrical problem that needs to be solved. The ST500 is a multi-purpose device made to quickly troubleshoot and locate the issue for the electric utility.
The device puts a high magnitude pulse between the neutral / hot leg or hot leg / hot leg for any secondary service (120V, 208V, 277V, 480V). It cannot be fooled by telephone and cable television bonding often missed by continuous loading devices.
The ST500 can be used for the following:
- Identify bad conductor(s) from the transformer to the meter base
- Indicate integrity of neutral conductor to prevent excessive house ground currents
- Locate both hot legs and neutral at the pedestal and / or transformer blocks
- Locate bad connectors on overhead spans
- Identify de-energized URD primary cable in a manhole or ditch
A six-month pilot project was conducted at a major investor owned utility where the ST500 was found to save the utility time and money while improving their customer satisfaction rating.